Thinking Like a Planet

The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic

J. Baird Callicott

This book develops an new moral philosophy that is capable of engaging the most urgent and otherwise intractable ethical concern of the first century of the new millennium: global climate change.

Updates and expands Aldo Leopold's land ethic to make it relevant to contemporary concerns with regard to climate change.

Thinking Like a Planet

The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic

J. Baird Callicott

Description

Bringing together ecology, evolutionary moral psychology, and environmental ethics, J. Baird Callicott counters the narrative of blame and despair that prevails in contemporary discussions of climate ethics and offers a fresh, more optimistic approach. Whereas other environmental ethicists limit themselves to what Callicott calls Rational Individualism in discussing the problem of climate change only to conclude that, essentially, there is little hope that anything will be done in the face of its "perfect moral storm" (in Stephen Gardiner's words), Callicott refuses to accept this view. Instead, he encourages us to look to the Earth itself, and consider the crisis on grander spatial and temporal scales, as we have failed to in the past. Callicott supports this theory
by exploring and enhancing Aldo Leopold's faint sketch of an Earth ethic in "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest," a seldom-studied text from the early days of environmental ethics that was written in 1923 but not published until 1979 after the environmental movement gathered strength.

Thinking Like a Planet

The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic

J. Baird Callicott

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART 1: THE LAND ETHIC

1. A Sand County Almanac1.1 The Author1.2 The Provenance of the Book1.3 The Unity of A Sand County Almanac-An Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview1.4 The Argument of the Foreword-Toward Worldview Remediation 1.5 The Argument in Part I-The Inter-subjective Biotic Community-Introduced1.6 The Argument of Part I-The Inter-subjective Biotic Community-Driven Home1.7 The Argument in Part II-The Evolutionary Aspect: Time and Telos1.8 The Argument in Part II-The Evolutionary Aspect: Beauty, Kinship, and Spirituality1.9 The Argument of Part II-The Ecological Aspect1.10 The Argument of Part II-The Pivotal Trope: "Thinking Like a Mountain"1.11 Norton's Narrow Interpretation of
Leopold's Worldview-remediation Project1.12 The Argument of Part III-To "See" with the Ecologist's "Mental Eye"1.13 The Argument of Part III-Axiological Implications of the Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview1.14 The Argument of Part III-The Normative Implications of the Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview1.15 The Persuasive Power of Leopold's Style of Writing1.16 The New Shifting Paradigm in Ecology and the Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview1.17 The Challenge Before Us

2. The Land Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Philosophical and Evolutionary Foundations2.1 The Odysseus Vignette2.2 Expansion of the Scope of Ethics Over Time (?)2.3 Ethical Criteria/Norms/Ideals versus (un)Ethical Behavior/Practice2.4 Ethics Ecologically (Biologically)
Speaking2.5 Darwin's Account of the Origin of Ethics by Natural Selection2.6 Darwin's Account of the Extension of Ethics2.7 The Community Concept in Ecology2.8 The Humean Foundations of Darwin's Evolutionary Account of the Moral Sense2.9 Universalism and Relativism: Hume and Darwin2.10 How Hume Anticipates Darwin's Account of the Origin and Expansion of Ethics2.11 Shades of the Social-Contract Theory of Ethics in "The Land Ethic"2.12 Individualism in (Benthamic) Utilitarianism and (Kantian) Deontology 2.13 Holism in Hume's Moral Philosophy2.14 Holism in "The Land Ethic"2.15 The Land Ethic and the Problem of Ecofascism Resolved2.16 Prioritizing Cross-community Duties and Obligations 2.17 Is The Land Ethic Anthropocentric or
Non-anthropocentric?

3. The Land Ethic (an Ought): A Critical Account of Its Ecological Foundations (an Is)3.1 Moore's Naturalistic Fallacy 3.2 Hume's Is/Ought Dichotomy and the Land Ethic3.3 How Hume Bridges the Lacuna Between Is-statements and Ought-statements3.4 How Kant Infers Ought-statements from Is-statements in Hypothetical Imperatives3.5 The Specter of Hume's Is/Ought Dichotomy Finally Exorcised 3.6 The Roles of Reason and Feeling in Hume's Ethical Theory Generally and Leopold's Land Ethic Particularly 3.7 How the General Theory of Evolution Informs the Land Ethic 3.8 How Ecosystem Ecology Informs the Land Ethic-Beyond the Biota3.9 How Ecosystem Ecology Informs the Land Ethic-A Fountain of Energy3.10 How Organismic
Ecology Informs the Land Ethic 3.11 How Mechanistic Ecology Informs the Land Ethic 3.12 How the Ecosystem Paradigm Returns Ecology to Its Organismic Roots 3.13 How Leopold Anticipates Hierarchy Theory in "The Land Ethic"3.14 Ecological Ontology and the Community Paradigm in Ecology 3.15 Ecological Ontology and the Ecosystem Paradigm in Ecology3.16 The "Flux of Nature" Paradigm Shift in Contemporary Ecology and "The Land Ethic"3.17 A Revised Summary Moral Maxim for the Land Ethic

4. The Land Ethic and the Science of Ethics: From the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Centuries4.1 Hobbes's Science of Ethics 4.2 Locke's Science of Ethics4.3 Hume's Science of Ethics4.4 Kant's Science of Ethics4.5 The Utilitarian Science of
Ethics4.6 How Logical Positivism Cleaved Apart Science and Ethics 4.7 Ayer's Migration of a Science of Ethics from Philosophy to the Social Sciences 4.8 Kohlberg's Social Science of Ethics 4.9 Gilligan's Social Science of Ethics 4.10 Group Selection in Darwin's Science of Ethics4.11 Group Selection in Wynne-Edwards's Evolutionary Biology4.12 Williams's Attack on Group Selection 4.13 Huxley's and Williams's Anti-natural (and Anti-logical) View of Ethics4.14 Sociobiology: Wilson's Neo-Darwinian Account of the Origin of Ethics4.15 The Fallacies of Division and Composition in the Sociobiological Science of Ethics4.16 Sociobiology and Biological Determinism4.17 The Evolutionary Foundations of the Land Ethic in Light of the Modern
and the New Syntheses in Evolutionary Biology

5. The Land Ethic and the Science of Ethics: In the Light of Evolutionary Moral Psychology5.1 Singer's Response to the Evolutionary Account of Ethics 5.2 Rachels' Response to the Evolutionary Account of Ethics5.3 Darwin's Alternative to Animal Ethics à la Singer and Rachels 5.4 Midgley's Alternative to Animal Ethics à la Singer and Rachels 5.5 A Community-based Analysis of Ethical Partiality5.6 A Community-based Analysis of Ethical Impartiality5.7 Dennett, Singer, Arnhart, and Haidt on the Philosophical Implications of Darwinism5.8 Group Selection Revisited5.9 The Analogy between Language and Ethics5.10 Hume on Nature and Nurture in Ethics 5.11 Post-Positivist Ethical
Absolutism5.12 Wherefore Post-Positivist Ethical Rationalism and Exclusionism5.13 Moral Norms in Humean Ethics Analogous to Medical Norms5.14 Critically Appraising Moral Norms in Terms of Intra-social Functionality and Inter-social Harmony5.15 A Humean-Darwinian Science of Ethics and Constrained Cultural Relativism5.16 The Philosophical Foundations of the Land Ethic Vindicated by the Contemporary Science of Ethics, but Limited to Ecological Spatial and Temporal Scales

PART II: THE EARTH ETHIC

6. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Philosophical Foundations6.1 Leopold and Biblical Tropes6.2 Ezekiel and Virtue Ethics-Both Individualistc and Holistic 6.3 Ezekiel and Responsibility to Future Generations6.4 Ezekiel and
Deontological Respect for the Earth as a Living Thing6.5 Leopold Dimly Envisions Hierarchy Theory in "Some Fundamentals" 6.6 How Leopold Interprets P. D. Ouspensky and His Book, Tertium Organum6.7 The Earth's Soul or Consciousness 6.8 A Scalar Resolution of a "Dead" Earth versus the Earth as a "Living Being"6.9 Respect for Life as Such6.10 Leopold's Charge that Both Religion and Science are Anthropocentric 6.11 How Leopold Ridicules Metaphysical Anthropocentrism6.12 Leopold's Use of Irony as an Instrument of Ridicule 6.13 Norton's Reading of Leopold as an Anthropocentric Pragmatist 6.14 Ouspensky, Leopold, and "Linguistic Pluralism"-according to Norton 6.15 Leopold's Return to Virtue Ethics6.16 Leopold's Non-anthropocentric
Anthropocentrism6.17 The Leopold Earth Ethic: A Summary and a Preview

7. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Scientific Metaphysical Foundations7.1 Ouspensky's Metaphysics and the Four-dimensional Space-time Continuum7.2 Vernadsky's Metaphysics and the Four-dimensional Space-time Continuum: Space7.3 Vernadsky's Metaphysics and the Four-dimensional Space-time Continuum: Time7.4 Vernadsky's Doctrine of the Abiogenesis of Life on Earth7.5 Venadsky's Anti-vitalism7.6 Vernadsky's Lasting Contribution to Biogeochemistry and Gaian Science7.7 Teilhard's Concept of the Noösphere7.8 Vernadsky's Concept of the Noösphere7.9 Scientific Knowledge as a Planetary Phenomenon7.10 The Biosphere Crosses the Atlantic7.11 The Advent of
the Gaia Hypothesis7.12 The Biosphere and Gaia Ecologized7.13 Vernadsky's Biosphere and Lovelock's Gaia: Similarities and Differences 7.14 Leopold's Living Thing, Vernadsky's Biosphere, and Lovelock's Gaia7.15 Is the Gaia Hypothesis Necessarily Teleological and Anthropomorphic?7.16 Varieties of the Earth's Soul or Consciousness7.17 Personal Speculations on the Earth's Soul or Consciousness

8. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Biocentric Deontological Foundations8.1 Leopold's Biocentric Earth Ethic and the Living Earth 8.2 Gaian Ontology8.3 Gaian Norms8.4 Schweitzer's Reverence-for-Life Ethic8.5 Schweitzer's Reverence-for-Life Ethic Rooted in the Metaphysics of Schopenhauer 8.6 Feinberg's Conativism8.7
Feinberg's Conativism as a Foundation for a Biocentric Earth Ethic? 8.8 Goodpaster's Biocentrism8.9 Goodpaster's Holistic Biocentrism as a Foundation for a Biocentric Earth Ethic?8.10 Feinberg the Tie that Binds Schweitzer and Goodpaster8.11 Taylor's Individualistic Biocentrism and Regan's Case for Animal Rights 8.12 Taylor's Deontology and Teleological Centers of Life8.13 Taylor's Biocentrism as a Foundation for a Leopold Earth Ethic?8.14 Rolston's Biocentrism as a Foundation for a Leopold Earth Ethic?8.15 Goodpaster's Biocentrism Provides the Best Theoretical Support for a Non-anthropocentric Earth Ethic

9. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Anthropocentric Foundations: The Natural Contract and Environmental Virtue Ethics9.1
No Need to Patronize Gaia with Biocentric Moral Considerability9.2 The Concept of Anthropocentrism Revisited9.3 War and Peace9.4 The Social Contract: The Ancient and Modern Theories9.5 Du Contrat Social au Contrat Naturel9.6 War or Peace? 9.7 The French Connection: Larrère9.8 The French Connection: Latour9.9 The French-Canadian Connection: Dussault9.10 Virtue Ethics9.11 Aristotelian Virtue Ethics 9.12 Environmental Virtue Ethics9.13 Holistic Virtue Ethics: Self-respecting Crafts9.14 Holistic Virtue Ethics: The Polis as a Social Whole9.15 Holistic Virtue Ethics: Nomos versus Phusis9.16 Holistic Virtue Ethics: Self-respecting Societies 9.17 The Dialectic of Social-Contract Theory and Virtue Ethics

Appendix "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest"--by Aldo LeopoldNotesIndex

Thinking Like a Planet

The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic

J. Baird Callicott

Author Information

J. Baird Callicott is University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy and author or editor of a score of books and author of dozens of journal articles, encyclopedia articles, and book chapters. His research goes forward on three main fronts: theoretical environmental ethics, comparative environmental philosophy, philosophy of ecology and conservation biology. He taught the world's first course in environmental ethics in 1971 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Thinking Like a Planet

The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic

J. Baird Callicott

Reviews and Awards

"Baird Callicott's magisterial book brings together science and philosophy in a fascinating search for an ethic that truly responds to the global-scale reality of today's most pressing environmental concerns. Highly recommended."--James Gustave Speth, author of America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy, and former dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

"Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic was one of the great philosophical (and practical) developments of the 20th century, and Now J. Baird Callicott manages to extend its scale dramatically. Trenchant and fascinating!"--Bill McKibben, author of Oil and Honey: The Making of an Unlikely Activist

"An innovative, pioneering, and powerful synthesis of Aldo Leopold's ethics. Callicott broadens Leopold's well-known land ethic by identifying within his writings a comprehensive Earth ethic that is global in scope. Together the two ethics entail sentient community insights and planetary visions. Anyone who seeks a moral grounding for current conservation, resource, and environmental actions will want to read this book."--Carolyn Merchant, Professor of Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics at University of California Berkeley and author of The Death of Nature; Ecological Revolutions; and Reinventing Eden

"Over the last four decades no one has done more to construct the intellectual framework of modern environmental ethics than J. Baird Callicott. Now, in this sweeping synthesis, Callicott draws upon an extraordinary breadth of insights from Western and non-Western philosophy, political theory, ecocriticism, religious studies, environmental history, the history of science, evolutionary biology, ecology, and earth science to provide the fullest development of his ideas. If we are to find our way forward in the 'Age of Consequences,' humanity will need to think anew about our history and our values, our prospects and our place in time. Callicott is an indispensable and challenging guide as we continue in this necessary task."--Curt Meine, Senior Fellow, The Aldo Leopold
Foundation and author of Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work